1. Field of the Invention
the present invention relates to an image forming device, such as a copier or a printer, to an electronic document management system that manages electronic documents to be printed by such an image forming device.
2. Description of the Related Art
recently, a technique is attracting attention in which characters or images handwritten by a user on a special paper with minute dots printed thereon are read as electronic information (data). The data can be sent to a personal computer or a mobile phone to be stored or preserved in a storage device, such as a magnetic disk device, or to be sent by e-mail. With this technique, small dots are printed on the special paper, for example, at intervals of about 0.3 mm, such that different patterns can be drawn, for example, for each grid having a predetermined size. The patterns can represent position information such as an address or the like. Accordingly, it is possible to specify a position or trajectory of a pen point on the special paper by reading the patterns, for example, using a special ball-point pen equipped with an optical reading unit, such as a digital camera. In addition, information concerning the position or trajectory of the pen point can be processed so that the characters or images handwritten on the paper can be used as electronic information.
As techniques according to the related art, various techniques have been proposed, such as a technique of printing a pattern on a paper, a technique of reading the pattern on the paper, and the like. As the technique of forming a pattern on a paper, a technique has been known in which a two-dimensional code pattern to be printed together with a document on demand using a typical general-purpose printer is provided. According to the technique described above, a two-dimensional code is printed all over the paper, together with a document, using a typical general-purpose printer. A document management database is referred to receive a document page ID for each page of the document to be printed, such that a two-dimensional code is generated as a two-dimensional code pattern for a document page to be printed. Position information that is represented with the two-dimensional code is assigned among position information that is collectively managed in advance.
In addition, as another related technique of forming a pattern on a paper, a technique has been known in which a computer unit generates boundary information for describing the boundary of sections in the overall position coding pattern, and a printer unit generates and prints figure information for describing a pattern based on the boundary. The technique also has been known that overlapping a generated pattern (figure information) and visual information to print it.
However, when a code pattern representing coordinates for specifying a position on a plane is formed on a paper, the code pattern and visual information, i.e., an image of an electronic document, may be overlapped and then printed. For example, in a document in which a prescribed form is printed and handwritten content is recorded on a surface of a paper, handwritten characters or images are obtained as electronic information. Examples of such an application include a medical examination and treatment chart, an exam paper, or the like.
When such an electronic document is printed, the margin of a paper is set to designate the format of the electronic document, or an N-up print for printing plural pages on a single paper is made. However, in such a system that the code pattern and the electronic document are overlapped and printed, when the margin setup or N-up print is made at the time of printing the electronic document, there is a problem in that a coordinate origin on the paper specified by the code pattern and a coordinate origin identified by an application that processes electronic information of the handwritten image do not match each other.
In addition, when an image is magnified or reduced to print an electronic document, the position of the image on the electronic document and the position of an actual image printed on the paper are different from each other. As a result, there is a problem in that when the handwritten image is recognized, the position obtained from reading information of the code pattern and the position identified by an application do not match each other.